Students can now apply for majors and minors online with a new E-Form. Students can also drop majors or minors in this same E-Form.

This E-Form is for all majors and minors that CWU offers. It will get sent to the specific department which will contact the student after the form has been filled out and submitted. Some specific departments have offered some kind of E-form in the past for applying for majors and minors that allowed students to submit all their requirements and then meet with an advisor. With this new program, students in all departments will be able to apply online.

A student will start out by providing all of the information needed and any letters of approval or refusal they have. From there the E-Form goes to the specific department and major in question and is reviewed.

According to Gail Mackin there are three things that can happen when the E-form is being reviewed. The advisor will receive your information like the students GPA, students transcripts and course history and then they can accept you into the major, and give you a new advisor. Your request to add or drop a major or minor may be put on hold, then you will be asked to meet with your advisor in person or send them additional information if needed. Your application may also be denied, in which case you will be sent a list of additional requirements to fulfill in order to resubmit your request.

Gail Mackin, the Associate Provost of Undergraduate and Faculty Affairs, implemented applying for majors and minors online.

“That was something that I noticed when I first came here a year and half ago, that students were carrying pieces of paper around to add and drop majors or request a major or minor. I just thought it would be something to work towards and to have something that was more streamlined and readily available for students,” Mackin said.

This is a change for CWU, switching from the old paper-in-hand method to an online E-form, allowing students to choose how they handle their majors and minors. The change will make it more accessible for students with this online format.

“I was hoping that students would feel that they had more control about their education, I think in particular the adding part, students feel comfortable with that. I wanted to make sure it was all captured within the system. Nothing got lost, nothing got waylaid. Because of a piece of paper, things will get shoved behind a desk etc. This way it is all record and all in there,” Mackin said.

Students who do not want to go into their previous hall or office and talk to their advisor or department head can now drop majors and minors online. This allows students to handle their major and minor in their own way.

“This also gives a more accurate account of who’s in what majors, which majors are active as opposed to inactive majors because I think students tend not to drop if it’s gonna be a bit of an issue,” Mackin said.

It took about a year to get this project completed on MyCWU, and a lot of communication between CWU Information Services and all of the associate deans and advisors.

This is a part of the new dashboard Mackin implemented with the help of Information Services.  It allows students to see who their advisor is, what majors and minors they are in, how many credits they are taking and how many they have in total.

“I thought it was important for each student to be able to see themselves as a student in a short little dashboard that says ‘here are my majors and minors, this is my advisor, here is my GPA [and] here’s how many credits I am carrying,’” Mackin said.